The Northwestern (University) Prison Education Program : Transformation Through Education.

Jennifer Lackey, Ph.D., Director of the Northwestern Prison Education Program, will speak on the topic, The Northwestern Prison Education Program: Transformation Through Education.  The Northwestern Prison Education Program (NPEP) is an initiative of Northwestern University to provide a high-quality liberal arts education to incarcerated students in Illinois in partnership with Oakton Community College and the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC). NPEP fills a vital need in Illinois by being the only degree-granting program in the state providing a full liberal arts curriculum—humanities, fine arts, social sciences, and STEM courses—to incarcerated students. NPEP is also the only postsecondary prison education program in Illinois that accepts applications from facilities throughout the state, including from medium- and maximum-security prisons.

Jennifer Lackey is also the Wayne and Elizabeth Jones Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Law (courtesy) at Northwestern University, Senior Research Associate at the African Centre for Epistemology and Philosophy of Science at the University of Johannesburg, Past President of the Central Division of the American Philosophical Association, and Founding Director of the Northwestern Prison Education Program.  Most of her research is in social epistemology with a current focus on issues involving credibility assessments within the American criminal legal system and epistemic reparations.  Lackey is the winner of the Dr. Martin R. Lebowitz and Eve Lewellis Lebowitz Prize for Philosophical Achievement and Contribution and she has received grants and fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.  Her Ph.D. is from Brown University.